County approves information systems requests

Rena Rogers, the county’s new information systems/communication director came before the county board on April 22, 2014 with three requests.

Rogers first asked the board to approve spending $899.10 to purchase an eLearning license. The contract will run one year and provide more than 3,000 online classes for IT staff.

Rogers said, “IT departments have an almost continuous need for training to keep pace with technology changes. The cost for a 3-5 day training class including travel expenses, for one individual can easily exceed $5,000,” Rogers said.

In addition to cost savings associated with staying at home, Rogers said she and her staff can learn at their own pace as well as receive training for new projects.

Second on her list was a request for $9,752.24 to purchase 10 workstations and two laptops at a cost of $2,649.58. This is a scheduled expenditure as work stations are replaced on a four-year schedule.

And last but not least, Rogers asked that a new central server room, co-located with the IT staff, be built at a cost of $31,943.42.

Rogers said benefits of this move include significantly enhancing the physical security of IT assets, increasing the operational efficiency by locating the equipment near the IT staff, and significantly improving environmental controls by limiting traffic in the server room which improves system reliability.

The project consists of converting a current supply room into an up-to-date server room.

Brian Silence, county maintenance director, presented estimates for the project with a total for construction of $11,395. The cost of replacing switches, panels and cables will cost $20,548.42.

The board approved Rogers’ three requests. Preconstruction on the server room will begin April 30, construction on May 10, and the project is scheduled for completion on June 30.

The money for the server room will come out of the building fund and from the data processing capital fund